The B Team has been dispatched to support a diplomatic mission acting as mediators on an alien planet attempting to emerge from civil war and form a new, unified government. The war has been going on for a couple of centuries, ever since the disappearance of the last king, and the pretext for the fighting is that each side blames the other for his disappearance.

CDF Lt. Harry Wilson has been given one simple task--watch the lead Ambassador's dog while she's mediating the very sensitive negotiations. It's a little, fairly well-behaved dog, and Harry and the dog have been given the run of the palace garden, with the assurance that there will be no repercussions for the dog doing normal doggy things. there. What could possibly go wrong?

Except that someone forgot to mention the carnivorous plants, some of them large enough to swallow a human whole...

This is a fun, entertaining interlude, lighter and funnier than recent episodes.

Recommended.

I bought this from Audible.com. ( )

I like books that play with languagge. Science fiction and fantasy books have a built-in potential for this as they often talk about things that don't exist in the real world. The masters handle the language very well, but even very good authors can get lost in new terminology to the point where it is not clear what is being talked about, or more typically to the point of dragging the narrative to a grinding halt. But Scalzi goes about it a different way. His characters talk how we talk now. New devices have descriptive names, which may be the actual name or a slang name used by everyone in teh culture, but which works to get the point across and not muddle things up. In this way, you can really focus on the characters and the story, both of which are quite good.
The narrator for this audiobook, William Dufris, is someone that I have heard on a number of sf audiobooks. When I hear his name at the beginning, I know I am in for a treat. His characterizations are clear and distinct. The best thing I can say about him is that usually by the middle of the book, I don't even realize that the female characters are being voiced by a man, not that he sounds like a woman, but that he does such a good job of making this a non-issue.

The 'Human Division' is John Scalzi's 5th installment in the 'Old Man's War' universe.
The titular 'Division' is not, as you might think, a military force. Rather, it is the suspicion with which the citizens of Earth regard the extra-solar Colonial Union, which has used the Earth as a source of soldiers and colonists, all the while hiding from Earth the dangerous galaxy in which it lives. The novel originally appeared in a series of e-installments, and the story arc is slightly disjointed as a result. Scalzi's tone is light and humourous and keeps the tale rolling along. There is a sequel on the way. ( )

A perfect little short story, funny, that fits into the arc. If I thought for a second that diplomacy were anything like Scalzi writes it, I'd be be kicking myself for never having joined the foreign service. He skips over the tedious bits in favor of the clever solution to thorny problems. Such fun.

Interesting that he didn't end each section on a cliff-hanger. Well, interesting because I'm totally enthralled anyway. I'm gonna miss this when it's done.

I bought it. ( )

Nice collection of stories set in the OLD MANƒ??S WAR universe. It continues the plot, so you donƒ??t want to miss it. I listened to the audio version which was very good. You can each episode separately or all together.
We've got a review of the full series here:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/fantasy-author/scalzijohn/
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